• by Wayne Friedman , 4 hours ago

The campaign has had 275 TV airings since Sept. 22, totaling 314.6 million impressions. A total of 14 networks have aired messaging to date.

The messaging is controversial. Critics have said the campaign is illegal because the TV advertising money comes from U.S. taxpayers via the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

According to federal law, government agencies can only spend taxpayer money on purposes that are specifically authorized by Congress.

In addition, the Hatch Act restricts federal employees in the executive branch from engaging in political activity while acting in their official capacity or using official federal resources.

The administration has said the messages are "public service announcements" (PSAs).

This week, President Trump announced that the Republican Party's super PAC will fund these ads instead of using funds from the DHS.

Two of the messages -- “The Final Battle” and “America Will Never Be A Communist Country” -- have pulled in the lion's share of that nearly $4 million spend through Oct. 4.

Fox News Channel has received the bulk of the airings so far at 79, resulting in an estimated 158 million impressions.

After Fox comes Newsmax TV with 72 airings (12.5 million impressions), followed by CBS with 28 airings (49.8 million), Fox Television Network with 22 (40.3 million), MS Now with 22 (10.9 million), NBC with 17 (26.8 million) and ABC with 15 spots (28.6 million).

Segments in the "Communist Country" spot include a video that originated from the Trump 2024 Presidential campaign advertising effort.

Analysts say that while the advertising is designed to boost support for Republican Party candidates in the upcoming November midterm elections -- many of whom are behind in the polls -- it doesn’t have end-of-message identification to identify that it is a political ad message.

The end of each spot only offers an onscreen message: ‘Paid for by the U.S. government”.